22 Sep Crisis Communication: How to Save, Not Kill, Your Brand in the First 5 Hours

A company’s reputation is everything. The way you structure your crisis communication can make or break that reputation.

Written by Jessica Komlos

5 min read

In the digital age, being able to deftly handle a crisis is critical. It’s not just about how your business responds, but also how it communicates that response.

The urgency and severity of a crisis, as well as the speed with which a crisis can grow in exposure because of social media, can make even a seasoned professional sweat.

These steps will help set you up to succeed in your crisis response, whether or not you’ve been through the wringer before.

1^st Hour – Know What You’re Facing … And With Whom 

If you are the communications lead on a crisis, it is critical you get as much information about the situation as you can. Set up a briefing session with key stakeholders within the hour – your line of questioning should follow the 5Ws (who, what, where, when and why).

Based on this, determine your spokesperson/s during the session. The spokesperson selected should acknowledge the seriousness of the crisis – if it is a payment issue affecting thousands of customers, the company founder or chief executive officer would be most suitable. For technical issues, such as a data breach at your company or an alleged wage dispute by an employee, it may be more suitable to select a subject matter expert, like your information technology officer or head of legal.

It is critical to know who your spokespeople will be because the communications you prepare will need to reflect their tone of voice. In the instance the crisis involves a technical issue, they will also be able to sense check the communications for accuracy.

Make sure you also identify any other stakeholders who will be required to sign off on crisis communication, aside from the spokesperson.

2^nd Hour – Prepare a Holding Statement

A holding statement outlines your position on the crisis and other critical information to the media and customers. This is a reactive tool, to be used when you receive an inbound enquiry. It arms your frontline teams with something consistent to say, while you work on preparing more in-depth communications explaining the crisis and the business’s response to those affected.

The purpose of the statement is to acknowledge you’re aware of the issue and what you will be doing to address it. Sometimes you might not even know what can be done to address the crisis because of its complexity – in such instances, acknowledge you’re working to identify the cause of the issue and will keep those affected informed of developments.

In this day and age, ‘no comment’ is an insufficient holding statement and can cause more harm than good without context. If you are unable to comment, for example, due to a matter being before the court, acknowledge this in your holding statement. The ‘why’ is critical when you are not able to directly address questions, as it can be interpreted by the public as your company trying to avoid responsibility or struggling to address the crisis.

3^rd Hour – Develop Your Crisis Communication Plan

Once you have a holding statement in place, you need to think about how you will proactively communicate to affected individuals.

Are the audiences internal or external? Are there multiple circumstances? If so, you will need to develop different communications for these audiences, to adequately address their concerns and provide them with relevant information.

Plan out your communications. Bear in mind the channels that are most suitable to reach your audiences, the order of importance of these communications, and whether they need to cascade (for example, people leaders being informed before their direct reports).

In situations where an action doesn’t need to be taken or the crisis is more complicated from a factual standpoint, email may be the most suitable channel. It is less invasive to your audience and allows for longer crisis communication. On the flip side, if you require affected individuals to take action immediately, such as requesting customers to change their passwords because of a data breach, SMS is a better channel as it has strong cut through and quick response times.

Use crisis milestones to plan out your different communications. Generally a milestone, such as finding out the cause of the crisis or a remediation action being completed, will trigger the need to inform affected individuals.

Circulate the plan to key stakeholders to ensure it is supported.

4^th Hour – Draft Key Crisis Communication

The longer it takes to proactively communicate to affected individuals, the higher the risk that the crisis could have a negative impact on your brand, staff or customers. A brief communication is better than no communication.

What can your business confidently say about the crisis? If it is still too soon to know with certainty that the issue will be addressed by a particular timeframe, do not overpromise. Communicate honestly that the business is still investigating the issue and advise affected individuals of when they are likely to hear from you again.

You should aim to communicate all critical information within 150 words, for longer communication formats. If you are drafting an SMS, try to keep it to 320 characters, and with social media posts be mindful of any character limits.

In all communications, it’s always best to only include one call to action. Also ensure you have contact details listed if affected individuals have further enquiries.

5^th Hour – Amplify One Message, Many Ways

Distribute the communication through the most appropriate channel first. When determining this, consider your audience and what the communication is trying to achieve.

If your crisis has significant exposure on social media, it may be best to communicate through this channel first to stop the spiral of comments from gaining further momentum.

If the crisis has been brought about by a news article, you should consider distributing a press release to key media outlets. The greater exposure that a press release can get through publication though, is why it is sometimes worthwhile investing in an external agency to prepare this for you if you haven’t done this before.

To increase the likelihood that impacted individuals will receive your communication sooner, look to publish through as many relevant channels as possible. Depending on the level of exposure your issue has had, you may want to expand this out beyond ‘owned’ channels, to also ‘paid’ and ‘earned’ channels, such as advertising in the trade press or announcements through your industry partners.

Never Waste a Crisis

Handled well, your crisis response can form a solid foundation for your brand identity. It can also be the reason why customers choose you over your competitors, because you have proven to be a safe pair of hands.

While this guide helps you move quickly and accurately when time is of the essence, the great impact a crisis can have on your business is why you should engage a crisis communication professional for advice or executional support if you feel out of your depth.